Introducing Oracle Data Integrator Cloud Service (ODICS)

Overview

Oracle recently announced Oracle Data Integrator Cloud Service. In a refreshing change, they announced a cloud product at the same time that it is actually publicly available and not something that is a future ability.

Impressively, the ODICS is the actual full on-premise version of ODI (version 12.2.1.2.0) available in an subscription cloud version.

Deploying Oracle Data Integrator Cloud Service will

Accelerate Analytics by executing E-LT workload into Oracle’s Platform as a Service and pushdown processing which is well suited in a cloud environment.

Allow users to do a monthly pay-as-you go model for Hybrid integration.

ODICS is being touted as the integration tool of choice for hybrid heterogeneous cloud deployments – moving data to/from on-prem to/from Oracle and non-Oracle cloud solutions. Its’ built on bulk data performance with a non invasive footprint that is optimized for mixed technologies, sources, targets, and applications.

It will directly connect to multiple RDBMS and big data engines such as SQL, Hive, and Datapump). It has native integration with Oracle Database Cloud service, Exadata Cloud Service, Big Data Cloud Service, and Java Cloud Service

ODICS offers simple or complex mappings that can be easily extended or refined which significantly reduces the learning curve, shortens implementation time, and makes for simpler maintenance.

Under the Covers

ODICS runs on top of the Java Cloud Service, so it is Weblogic based and highly available. It’s running version ODI 12c.

The cloud version will run the ODI server and agent on the cloud only. You cannot run an on-premise agent without an on-prem license.

There are quite a few available Plugable knowledge modules

Dtabse CS

Exadata CS

Hive

HBase

Spark

Sqoop

BICS

Kafka

Oralce DB Link

Pig

External Tables

Cassandra

Oracle Datapump

Teradata

EBS

IBM DB2

Netezza

SCD

You may notice that NONE of the EPM cloud products are mentioned. there is no support for direct integration to products like Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) Financial Close and Consolidation (FCCS), or Essbase Cloud Service. However, BI Cloud service is directly supported.

If you want to do a lot of integration with on-premise, especially pushing data to on-premise, you will want to establish a VPN connection with ODICS so that direct integration can happen. If not, there could potentially be some haphazard flat file movement which will require Oracle Cloud storage to store files that ODICS can pick it up.

My initial understanding that if you want to use the ODI Studio, you must have it in the cloud on something like Oracle compute and install it. Users will have to use some sort of Remote Desktop connection to log into a server to launch the client. But I need to verify this.

REST API is not available yet for ODICS, but is expected soon.

Use Cases

Oracle has discussed a few use cases.

Use Case one: Migrations / Refreshes

ODICS can be used to facilitate data migrations. It can be leveraged to move data from On-prem to cloud either as a part of a permanent move or as a way to move data copies or data refreshes. ODICS can be used to migrate data from DEV to PROD or visa versa.

Use Case two: Data Warehousing and Analytics

A good use case for ODICS is to consolidate data from multiple sources into a data warehouse. After mapping and translating all the data into an optimal format and staging, customers can leverage BI for complete enterprise wide reporting and analytics. For more real time analytics, customers could also employ Golden Gate Cloud Service for a nice trickle feed.

Use Case 3: Heterogeneous Cloud Integration

ODICS can be used to sync data and metadata between hybrid solutions. As I stated before, companies more and more are looking at a best of breed solution to managed applications by choosing the right platform for each application. The day of consolidating all solutions into one single provider is over. ODICS creates an environment where a single cloud application can manage all of your data integration regardless of the physical platform it resides on.

Use Case 4: Moving to a Holistic Solution as a Service provider

Leaving a poor performing hosting provider can seem like a daunting task. ODICS can offer some companies the ability to “lift-and-shift” their applications to a new provider without the need for large data exports, file transfers, and data imports. Data does not sit in the cloud, ODICs provides a pass-through to move into a new home that could provide better service and/or better cost:

Oracle Data Integrator cloud service is available now on cloud.oracle.com under platform as a Service -> Integration.

Pricing is tied to the OCPU and is different depending if you want a metered or non-metered model: